


End of the World (as we know it)

by JasperMoore



Series: Stepping Stones Between the Stars [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Asexual Character, Gen, I took canon and threw it out the window, Prequel, but not permanently, people die, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-21 19:53:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7401622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasperMoore/pseuds/JasperMoore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky Barnes never falls. Peggy Carter dies in Germany. SHIELD never raises it's head. Clint Barton never leaves the circus. Natasha Romanov is taken down. Steve Rogers stays under the ice. Bruce Banner dies in his experiement. The Avengers never form.</p><p>At 42, Tony Stark lives his last day on Earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> As a forwarning, this is unbetaed. Please please please, if you want to beta, let me know. If there's something I needed to tag and failed to do so, let me know. And with that, go ahead. More notes will follow.

On May 29, 1973, Anthony Edward Stark was born to celebrity couple Howard and Maria Stark, whose marriage outside the spotlight was as rocky as a hidden reef. Perhaps they had hoped a child would ease their relationship, but Howard was as sharp-tongued and heavy-handed as always, and once the novelty of parenthood wore off, young Anthony was more often than not left in the hands of women whose looks had them labeled as lesser.

Tony grew up being paraded about, used as the public fulcrum of a happy family. He learned to hide his tears, to tell people the scrapes and bruises came from playground scuffles

He grew up wishing Jarvis had been his father instead.

At 15, Tony was accepted to MIT. At 16, he built his first friend. At 17, he came home for Christmas only to find that Jarvis was dead and buried. At 19, the young Stark built his first AI; he named it after the best man he had ever known. At 20, he attended Howard's funeral. An unfortunate accident, they said. Code for 'he blew himself to hell in his R&D lab'. Tony couldn't bring himself to cry. Obie sent Maria to an extended care home when Tony was 22. Huntington's disease. She had been hiding the symptoms until unable to care for herself anymore. Tony visited her twice a year. She always called him Howard.

At 26, the Stark heir hired Virginia Potts as his personal assistant. She was nice enough to look at, but as it turned out, she had a spine of steel as well. She could kick Tony's ass from here to Sunday without chipping a manicured nail. Tony was maybe a little bit in love, but he was the CEO of Stark Industries. There was no time for puppy love.  
At 28, JARVIS was always in Tony's pocket. The AI was no longer an 'it', but a 'he', and he was constantly learning.

At 35, Tony flew to Afghanistan. At 35, he blacked out in an explosion and woke up with a car battery strapped to his chest. At 35 he cannibalized his own bombs to make a suit of iron. He watched his savior die, blew up that damned cave, and shot off into the desert. At 35, Rhodey brought him home.

At 35 he discovered a new element while playing with a home-made particle accelerator. He never could replicate the process, but that tiny lump of unknown fit nicely into the reactor embedded in his chest.

At 35, Tony made Iron Man.

At 35, he kissed Pepper Potts. At 36, Obie smashed her against a wall with his Iron Monger suit. Tony set off the exhibition reactor and killed his former father figure. He declined to appear to the press.

At 37, he was hospitalized for the first, but certainly not the last, time due to alcohol poisoning.

At 38, Justin Hammer bought Stark Industries.

At 40, Rhodey died in a plane crash. At 40, Tony showed up drunk to the funeral.

At 42, Tony lives his last day on Earth.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony puts on the suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this ends the first part. The second part should be much, much longer. It will contain most of the plot. This is all pretty much an introduction.

Tony Stark wakes to blessed darkness, and what feels like all seven of Snow White's dwarves hammering away at his head. The constant buzzing and clattering of his phone on the workbench isn't helping matters. 

"God fucking damnit," he moans, the words slurred and muzzy. His tongue feels thick and dry, and the sour-bitter tang of bile coats his mouth. He lays there with his head on cool steel, unwilling to move for a time, but when his options become either drink something or vomit, Tony peels himself from the chair and fumbles for an empty tumbler. This, he fills with tap water, which quickly washes down painkillers. 

Of course, this all becomes a moot point seconds later, when Tony's body decides on the third option of drink something _and_ vomit on the workshop floor.

"JARVIS," he rasps, hands braced on his knees. "Jay, shower. Hot shower. God, I need a shower."

He braces one hand on the cold steel workbench and straightens up, which, personally, Tony counts as a victory, because being horizontal is much more tempting than all this vertical crap, but JARVIS- attentive, mother hen JARVIS- doesn't respond. 

"JARVIS," Tony calls out again, loud enough to make himself wince, but the AI is silent. And, hang on, that's not the only thing that's dead. Tony lurches over to the wall and flips the light switch on. Flips it a couple more times for good measure, but the main lights stay out. It seems that the power's out. And while most of the machines in Tony's workshop still hum steadily, feeding from the workshop's own generator, the emergency lights are out too. So, go figure. No shower.

Well, time for a trip to one of the swanky New York hotels. Finally addressing the frantically-vibrating phone, Tony picks it up. 

"You can stop pitching a hissy fit, Jarvis. I'm sorry I muted you," the hungover genius groused. "I need a place to shower. Hook me up, wouldja buddy?"

JARVIS is urgent and solemn in his reply.

"Sir, a state of emergency has been declared for the area. New York is under attack."

That draws Tony up short. 

"What do you mean, under attack," he says slowly. 

Videos pop up on the phone screen, one after the other. Grainy phone shots, clear news station footage, all of... fire. Bursts of energy. Crumbling buildings. It's like something from one of those end-of-the-world movies. And there are these... _things_ , gliding around on hoverboards. Tony's never seen anything like it. 

"What the fuck are those?" he mutters, voice strained. 

JARVIS pipes up again. "The current theory is aliens."

New York is burning, and there are aliens on Earth. Even Tony's brain can't wrap around it all. The concrete floor shudders, and dust cascades from the ceiling. Tony's mouth sets into a hard line.

"Jarv, is the suit operational?" 

The words taste like ash in his mouth. For seven years, the red and gold suit had been locked away- out of sight, out of mind. Sex, alcohol, and avoidance had been Tony's preferred methods of drowning out the upheaval surrounding Obadiah's betrayal. But now? Now, there are... are _things_ darting around through the flames of a city on fire.

"I would not recommend exiting the-"

"Does it work," Tony snaps.

There is reluctant pause, before JARVIS replies: "Yes. It is functional."

"I need all systems up and running ASAP. Give it all we've got. I need to be in that suit." 

U rolls up to him, nudges his hand, whirring anxiously. Tony looks down at his bot, heart clenching he swallows and pats the bot on the claw. His creations had missed their home in California when Tony decided to move them to New York. That one is a decision he now regrets. 

"It's gonna be alright, U. Go dock and got to sleep. I'll wake you guys up when I get back, alright?"

DUM-E coos at him in the failing light as power is diverted to the Iron Man suit, and Tony gives it a rub too. 

"Sir," JARVIS calls from the phone speakers. "If you wish to don the suit, now would be the time. This level's backup generator cannot sustain its current output for long."

"I got it, thanks." Tony takes one more look at his bots as they settle in to their charging stations. "Go to sleep, guys. I'll be back soon."

And so Tony Stark finds himself suiting up, cursing the sudden resurgence of his (spotty) morals. He drank himself through Pepper's funeral, Rhodey's death, losing the company. Why not get shit-faced for this disaster too? Maybe then he'd get lucky, and someone would bomb the tower while he was laid out and end his pathetic, miserable existence. But no, apparently the apathy he'd comfortably wrapped himself in seems to have fled from the flames. 

The armor goes on with only a little fuss. It's a bit looser than Tony remembers it, but then again, he's lost weight. He flexes his fingers and steps off onto the floor as the HUD flickers to life. 

"Welcome back, sir," JARVIS says quietly. 

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and download yourself to the suit. Connection's probably gonna be hard out there."

"Of course, sir."

"We can do this," Tony mutters, walking to the door. Outside, there are windows looking out on a city alight. And hell. Everything's already burning. What's one more broken window? The genius fires a repulsor, and then he's gone.

Turns out, flying the suit is just like riding a bike. He's a little wobbly at first, but then muscle memory kicks in, and he dives to the streets.

It's hell out there. There are these flying whale things with armor that shoots missiles. People are screaming. Flames roar and glass shatters around him. One by one Tony takes out the aliens, splattering their blood on the pavement, but they just keep coming and coming and coming. Buildings shudder and collapse. Bodies pile up in the streets. Tony won't think about how most of them are human. He's one man against an army, and as the sun rises he sees dark ships in the sky. Soldiers have been sent, human ones, and they're dropping like flies. JARVIS says it's not just New York under attack anymore.

He's bleeding and sweating in the noon sun. The exhaust plates from his back are missing, torn off by a particularly nasty crash. The chest plate is crushed-in; he can't breathe properly, and he feels blood on his fingers.

Maria is dead. She has to be. Her care facility blew up an hour ago. The last thing she had said to him, yesterday, was "Goodbye, Howard."

The HUD is flickering, red warnings flashing before his eyes, but he can't stop.

He can't stop. 

The Sun is setting and an alert comes. A nuclear missile, inbound. Tony doesn't pay attention to who sent it. They can't do this. They _can't_ New York has millions of people. They can't just nuke it. What could this possibly solve?

It's an act of desperation, and a stupid-ass decision. Tony veers off from pounding a group of flyers and shoots towards the white speck coming closer.

In the end, he doesn't catch the missile. His fingers brush the casing as it soars by, sparks flying. There is a white flash, a searing heat, and then...

Nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment or give kudos if you please. They're very encouraging.

**Author's Note:**

> A brief explanation of my thought process. 
> 
> Sometime in the distant past, a domino fell. Far the the future, a butterfly effect begins to reach its head. The Tesseract doesn't exist. Schmidt seeks to harness thermonuclear power instead. Bucky doesn't fall. He distracts Peggy as they storm the Hydra base, and she is shot. Without Peggy, SHIELD doesn't last. Without SHIELD, Clint is never taken in. Without Clint, Natasha is killed, not turned. Without Natasha, Obie gets ahold of Pepper and uses her against Tony. Without Pepper and her support, Tony falls into depression and suffers from severe PTSD. He tries to numb himself with sex and alcohol until the day the world ends.
> 
> Also, comments and/or kudos are much appreciated. They're very encouraging.
> 
> The current plan is to update weekly. Will that happen? Hmm. We'll have to see.


End file.
